1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information guidance service system, an information guidance providing device, an information guidance service method, and a recording medium. In particular, the invention relates to an information guidance service system, an information guidance providing device, an information guidance service method; and a recording medium, which are used for an information guidance service such as a transit guidance of a public transportation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such an information guidance service, includes a transit guidance of a public transportation, an information guidance service on facilities around a station, in a downtown area, or the like, and an information guidance service on exhibits in a museum, an art gallery, or the like. Specific examples of the information guidance service include techniques disclosed in JP 2002-298284 A (hereinafter, referred to as “Document 1”) and JP 2002-255035 A (hereinafter, referred to as “Document 2”).
In a transit point guidance service according to Document 1, a portable navigation device sends to an information center a current position and a destination that are inputted through operation of an operation unit. The information center searches databases including train schedules and maps for a guide route from the current position to the destination, sets a transit point, and sends the resultant information to the portable navigation device.
In a transit guidance service according to Document 2, a cellular phone sends to a center device a departure station ID received from a departure-station-wicket-data transmitter, through which a non-contact IC card is passed, and a destination station ID received from a destination-station-list device. The center device checks the running status and sends a transit station and an arrival time at the transit station to a cellular phone.
However, the above-mentioned transit point guidance service using the portable navigation device according to Document 1, the current position and the destination need to be inputted through the operation of the operation unit, which leads to a problem in that the portable navigation device is not easy to input characters with and the operation takes much time. In addition, in the transit point guidance service using the portable navigation device according to Document 1, it requires much time to receive a large amount of data under constraints of communication line speed, which leads to a problem in that it takes much time and a large amount of communication line fees to obtain information.
Further, in the transit guidance service using the cellular phone according to Document 2, it is required that each station wicket has a departure-station-wicket-data transmitter, and that each station has several destination-station-list devices, which leads to a problem in that it requires huge cost to accomplish such a system.
Further, in the transit guidance service using the portable terminal as described in Documents 1 and 2, in order to collect service fees, the connection between the portable terminal and the center device needs to be held until the user arrives at the destination. With the configuration described in Documents 1 and 2, the communication is performed during the connection, and the charge is to be made according to the communication time. In the case where the long-hour communication is required to obtain information with such a charging-method-based on the communication time, the communication fees increase accordingly, which leads to a problem in that it takes much time and a large amount of communication fees to obtain information. The same problem occurs not only in the transit guidance service, but also in other types of information guidance service.